Georgia Nelson couldn’t accept what had happened to her 24-year-old grandson.

Matt Milligan committed suicide in 2011 while he was living in Connecticut, where he had recently moved with his fiancé.

Milligan was the son of Lewisville resident Joni Gibbs. She and her parents, Georgia and Joe, spent the rest of the year wondering how it could happen, being skeptical about it being labeled a suicide and dealing with the logistics of bringing him back to Texas.

Then they found Denton County-based nonprofit Touched By Suicide, a Lewisville/Flower Mound-based organization working to prevent suicide by setting up support groups to help those who’ve been affected by it.

“At first, my husband didn’t know if it was a good idea to repeat the tragedy over and over again,” said Nelson, 69.

Nelson is one of a number of North Texans who are dealing with losing a relative or friend to suicide and now attend the Touched By Suicide support groups.

Touched By Suicide has helped her open up to accepting the death, she said.

Nearly a decade after the first support group in Flower Mound got started, organizers say Touched By Suicide has come a long way.

“We’ve grown a lot,” said Martha Giles, a longtime member who began the Lewisville group in 2006 and is now on the organization’s board.

The organization’s seventh annual walk, its main fundraiser, is scheduled for Nov. 2 at the Bartonville Town Center in Bartonville.

This year, the organization became a nonprofit and added a teen support group for 13- to 17-year-olds. Over the years, it has also expanded to three adult support groups.

Attendance at meetings fluctuates, depending on whether a tragedy has recently occurred in the area.

About 100 to 150 people participate in the walk each year, which is scheduled to start 10 a.m. Nov. 2, with registration at 9 a.m. The walk includes a reading of the names of loved ones who took their own lives and a release of balloons and doves.

Organizers said last week they are still in need of volunteers for the walk. Anyone interested in participating or volunteering can visit the organization’s website, touchedbysuicide.org.

Nelson said the organization helped her family deal with tragedy in ways she never expected.

“It’s oddly comforting to hear the horrors of others’ stories and of your own,” she said. “It’s a group that gives you hope that you’ll reach this plateau where you can manage the loss differently.”

Giles said the facilitators of the groups guide discussions, but the rest is left to the people who attend.

“People who come have a love one who tried to commit suicide or did commit suicide,” she said. “They’re wondering why this happened and they’re dealing with a lot of pain. We form a bond of friendship of doing through this together.”

Giles lost her son to suicide in 2004.

Sherri McCarthy, a counselor with the Lewisville ISD, is the only board member who’s not experienced the loss of a loved one; she’s a survivor, attempting to kill herself 33 years ago.

Organizers are now trying to find ways to team up with the Denton County Mental Health Mental Retardation Center, which provides services for people in need of mental health care and their families.

“We’re exploring how we can help them,” Giles said.

Denton County receives the lowest per capita funding in Texas for mental health, according to a recent study by the United Way of Denton County. The study found that Texas spends the least per capita on mental health, with $16.25 per capita in 2012.

According to the study, more than 60,000 adults in the county may meet the criteria for a diagnosable mental illness.

“We want the state of Texas to get off the bottom for spending of mental health,” Giles said.

McCarthy said people in the area often don’t realize suicide is an issue.

“Here in Lewisville, people don’t think we have this problem,” she said.

That’s one of the reasons organizers are so open to talking: they want to raise awareness and help others heal.

“The big question is why did this happen. And there’s no good answer,” Giles said.

Lewisville-Flower Mound editor Julissa Treviño can be reached at 214-977-8023.

SUPPORT GROUPS

ADULTS:

Flower Mound: 7 p.m. the first and third Tuesdays of the month at Trinity Presbyterian Church, 5500 Morriss Road

Lewisville: 7 p.m. the second Thursday of each month at Wesley Hall at Vista Ridge United Methodist Church, 2901 Denton Tap Road

Denton: 7 p.m. first and third Thursdays of the month at St. Mark’s Catholic Church, 2800 Pennsylvania Drive

TEENS:

7 p.m. the first Tuesday of each month at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Flower Mound

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